A ride with the devil through Yale and back

How far would you go for a 4.0? It's the tagline for the new, undergraduate-produced film Blue Devil, and it's everywhere—on posters, kiosks, bulletin boards, the Internet, and faux fliers for dubious psychology tests in the post office. The concentrated marketing of student-produced films has developed into an art of its own over the past few years and has, in turn, changed the filmmaking community at Yale.

A tongue-in-cheek dark comedy about Yale students selling their souls for better GPAs, Blue Devil will premiere on Thurs., Apr. 6 at 7:30 p.m. in Davies Auditorium. It is the third student film in as many years to attempt to reach a large audience by creating its own buzz, preceded by 1998's Across The Hall and 1999's Ivy Weeds. New video technology has suddenly made it financially feasible for students to create film projects of substantial length and still have enough money for publicity. As a result, more films are being made, both outside and within the classroom setting, and Yale's film community is still adjusting.

Stars from the A-list

Blue Devil is the first film to be produced by YFS Films, the production-centric offshoot of the Yale Film Society (YFS). Gabriel Winer, MC '02, the current head of YFS Films, explained, "[The organization] is modeled after a studio system. It's as if there were a studio head organizing things. We try to get members involved with each other—we try to organize and coordinate producers, directors, crew, and actors for projects."

Aaron Kogan, ES '00, help-ed found YFS three years ago and is a producer for Blue Devil. "Before the film studies program was founded in 1986, there were a number of film societies on campus," Kogan said. "Almost all, however, went under in the late 1980s because of financial difficulties. When I arrived at Yale, there was only the Medical School Film Society, Upix and then the Ezra Stiles Film Society, which wasn't doing much of anything."

In 1997, YFS was founded as a forum for students to learn about films and filmmaking. The core aim of the organization was to bring speakers to campus and show films in original, big-screen format. In addition to hosting A-list stars like Edward Norton, ES '91, and Al Pacino, the YFS often offers its members a chance to talk to professionals who are involved with the behind-the-scenes aspects of filmmaking. On Wed., Apr. 5, writer James Schamus will introduce his film, Ride With the Devil, directed by Ang Lee, as part of a joint YFS/film studies department event.

While many short films are made each year at Yale, both in filmmaking classes and as independent projects, the films are usually no more than 10 minutes long and are generally shot on 16 millimeter film. They are bankrolled with money from Sudler funds and can cost anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000. Digital video, used to film Blue Devil and Ivy Weeds, is relatively cheap by comparison. This allows for much longer running times: Ivy Weeds was just under an hour long, and Blue Devil is a feature-length piece. "The success of Ivy Weeds allowed student films to become big events. After Ivy Weeds, it was like, `Who's going to carry the torch next year?'" Kogan said.

Advertising has a lot to do with the creation of a "big event" film—Blue Devil has its own website at www.blue-devil.net, as well as advertising tie-ins with BAR and Cafe Adulis. According to Kogan, it was "intense publicity" that helped make Ivy Weeds a success, and thus publicity was deemed a priority in the production of Blue Devil. Benjamin Woodlock, ES '02, an actor in Blue Devil, agreed, "It's fun because they've made its release into a campus event."

Hell's home-wrecker hits

While Blue Devil's director, Pedro Kos, SY '01, came to Yale with some knowledge of the technical aspects of film production, he doesn't think that he represents the norm of the campus filmmaking community. "I would say that at least half of the [student filmmakers] come here with no previous experience with filmmaking—they have their first experience here." That, Kogan argues, is where organizations like YFS and YFS Films come in. "Our goal is essentially...to allow film students to network with each other and gain filmmaking knowledge," he said. The actors in Blue Devil were well aware of the skill of its production staff. "People often forget how crucial the director of photography really is. We were really lucky with Lucien [Lefcourt, SM '02] because he had technical experience, but more importantly, he had a great eye," Clarissa Ward, JE '02, who plays the film's title character, said.

Kos began writing the screenplay for Blue Devil last year, but once the movie was cast (with Blake Edwards, SM '02, and Ward in the lead roles), the script began to change drastically. "The real script came about through improv," Kos said. "So much of the dialogue was created during the rehearsals. The actors are amazing, and I let them rewrite the script."

"We were lucky enough to be able to improv all the scenes before shooting, so we could really have fun with our characters," Ward explained. "Obviously, it's difficult to play a character like the devil, but it was so much fun to be this man-eating home-wrecking bitch."

With The Skulls in theaters right now, it seems like a good time to examine the depiction of Yale on film, even within movies made on campus. "Blue Devil is definitely not about your typical Yale weekend, with its hot wax and orgies with erotic dancers who wear chains around their biceps," Ward said. Nevertheless, it takes place at Yale and is written, directed, produced, and acted by Yale students.

The diversity of projects produced during senior workshops in the film studies program is vast. "Ivy Weeds was actually done as a senior film project, but it's not representative of what was supposed to be done in the context of the workshop...The films [like Ivy Weeds and Across the Hall] have not been uninteresting," Charles Musser, director of undergraduate studies of the film studies department, said. He compared these heavily marketed films, somewhat unfavorably, to Short Change, an award-winning film made by recent graduate (and film studies major) Jon Andrews, SM '96. "However," he added, referring to the 1996 piece, "the film that won us a [Student] Academy Award was also made as a senior project."

While many of the student filmmakers at Yale look forward to careers in the film business, others are simply experimenting with the medium. "It's like the theater community, where there are a lot of people who aren't [theater studies] majors involved with plays," Musser said. "Many of the films made at Yale are made outside of the context of senior projects. Being a film studies major is not the only way to get into the industry."

Indie `shite' vs. Hollywood hype

So, what does the future look like for student filmmakers at Yale? Most people seem reluctant to make any concrete predictions. "Most organizations come and go over the years because the people running them graduate. I think that YFS has been expansive in its ambitions—but that may change next year. Who knows?" Musser said.

"The YFS is split into two groups: the new guard and the old guard," Paulina Hatoupis, SY '00, a student involved in film, said bluntly. "The old guard is about music videos and indie shit...and then the new guard is into big productions." When asked if there was a dialogue between the filmmaking factions on campus, she remarked: "A dialogue? I would say more of a rivalry. It's gotten more interesting this year, definitely." Kogan foresees an increase in the number of "new guard" big productions over the next few years. "There are a lot of really motivated student filmmakers; my prediction is that there will be even more `event' student films," he said. Of Blue Devil, Woodlock commented that "a lot of student films are these very esoteric, experimental deals but Blue Devil is a tongue-in-cheek imitation of Hollywood, right down to the producer Aaron Kogan talking on his headset cell phone all day."

When asked about the final stages of post-production on Blue Devil, Kos laughed. "It kind of feels like there's a hurricane that's about to hit soon."

Photos of (from top) Margaret Miller, BR '01, Michael Graham, TC '02, Blake Edwards, SM '02, and Clarissa Ward, JE '02, courtesy Pedro Kos.

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